So I Had No Choice But to Stop Being the White Moonlight – Chapter 63

I’m Not Going to Be the White Moonlight

“Emergency Rations!”

The morning light was clear and bright. Shi Jinlan’s room was the best in the entire Western-style building, with sunlight spilling through the window onto the desk.

Chi Qian’s freshly signed name sat alongside Shi Jinlan’s. The undried ink floated with a faint halo, looking as if the sun might bleach it into nothingness.

But the ink had already soaked into the paper.

White paper, black characters¹—it couldn’t be changed.

Chi Qian stared at her signature in awkward dismay, calculating if she could go back on her word and renegotiate the details with Shi Jinlan.

After all, the stipulation that “she belongs only to Shi Jinlan” sounded suggestive no matter how you heard it. It was wrong in the extreme.

“Can I… ask the reason?” Chi Qian tried to mediate.

“Of course.”

Mrs. Housekeeper nodded and explained unhurriedly, hiding her master’s possessiveness that was ready to come out at one’s call².

“Miss Chi, the nature of your work requires you to be by the Young Miss’s side 24h a day. If you establish a romantic relationship with someone else during your employment, it would likely affect the employer’s quality of life.”

This explanation was obviously much easier for Chi Qian to swallow.

Sure enough, a monthly salary of five hundred thousand wasn’t easy to earn. She dragged out a long “Oh,” feeling that what Mrs. Housekeeper said made sense, though she still faintly felt something was off.

Seeing Chi Qian’s vague expression, Mrs. Housekeeper changed the subject. “Before the Young Miss left, she gave instructions. Besides taking care of the Young Miss herself, there is one other thing Miss Chi is responsible for looking after.”

“What is it?” Successfully distracted, Chi Qian asked curiously.

Mrs. Housekeeper smiled warmly. “Miss Chi, change into some light clothes and follow me.”

Mrs. Housekeeper possessed a keen sense of propriety. She took the contract and left, drawing the curtains for Chi Qian on her way out.

Getting along with someone like that didn’t feel stressful at all—it was actually quite comfortable.

Chi Qian liked this supervisor. She changed clothes as instructed and went downstairs to find Mrs. Housekeeper waiting at the door.

Midsummer plants soaked in the sunlight, growing wildly.

Shi Jinlan’s manor was surrounded by greenery. Chi Qian followed Mrs. Housekeeper behind the building, staring at the massive estate until she lost her sense of direction.

After an unknown number of turns, the branches blocking her view slowly receded, revealing a patch of lawn clearly less manicured than the rest.

Near the edge of the lawn stood a tiny house made of dark brown wood. It looked like a pet house.

Could it be that the other thing Shi Jinlan wants me to take care of is a pet?

Chi Qian was just wondering this when Mrs. Housekeeper walked over and opened the door. “Here.”

The exquisitely carved door welcomed the sunlight, but when Chi Qian looked in, she saw only a black mass.

It looked like a shadow, yet not. The black mass moved slightly, and a moment later, a pair of long, soft ears poked out from the doorway.

A black rabbit twitched his nose and hopped out.

“Emergency Rations!” Chi Qian blurted out, shocked and amazed, simply unable to believe her eyes.

When the rabbit heard someone call him, as if he actually knew that was his name, he lifted his head toward Chi Qian.

Under the sunlight, those grey-blue eyes were round and shimmering with a gem-like luster.

Whether Emergency Rations was just friendly or actually recognized her, he took the initiative to hop right up to her side.

Chi Qian crouched down. The joy of reunion didn’t make her forget the habits of small animals; she reached out her hand to let him sniff her scent.

“Looks like Ah Lan has taken good care of you.” Chi Qian watched the surprise in Emergency Rations’ eyes gradually turn into relief.

After not seeing him for a few years, this guy was still the same as before, just bigger.

His black fur was like satin, smooth to the touch and radiating a soft warmth.

“How did Miss Chi know this rabbit’s name?” Mrs. Housekeeper asked with a smile, standing behind her.

The warm moment of reunion instantly turned into a horror movie because of the third person’s presence.

Chi Qian panicked, turning her head stiffly to look at Mrs. Housekeeper, who had been there the whole time. “That…”

【Host, the doorplate.】 Thirteen hurriedly reminded her, processing faster than ever before.

“The house! Isn’t it written on its house!” Chi Qian received Thirteen’s signal and walked toward Emergency Rations’s hut. “Isn’t this it? Emergency, Rations. My eyesight is good, right? Haha, hahaha.”

Chi Qian pointed at the doorplate and gave an awkward laugh.

Mrs. Housekeeper returned a polite smile.

Chi Qian’s explanation seemed to convince her. She didn’t dig deeper but followed procedure to explain the scope of work. “From now on, besides taking care of the Young Miss’s life, Miss Chi is responsible for Emergency Rations.”

“However, you don’t need to do the cleaning. You are only responsible for bringing him out for fresh air every day.”

“Okay.” Chi Qian nodded seriously. This was the first time she’d heard that playing with a rabbit was considered a job.

But upholding the professional ethic of loving whatever line of work one is in, Chi Qian asked dutifully, “When should I bring him out? Once in the morning and once in the afternoon?”

“Whatever works. Miss Chi can set the time herself,” Mrs. Housekeeper said.

That was quite a flexible schedule.

But bunnies weren’t domesticated like dogs; their playtime probably depended on their mood, so not setting a fixed time wasn’t wrong.

Like a little white³ entering the workplace, Chi Qian was full of enthusiasm for her new profession. Stroking Emergency Rations, she asked, “Then can today’s airing out start now?”

Mrs. Housekeeper smiled. “Of course, that is your freedom.”

She was the housekeeper Ah Ning had carefully selected for Shi Jinlan, thorough in everything she did. She instructed Chi Qian, “If Miss Chi wants to go back later, walk straight along this path and turn left onto the cobblestone road. That leads to the Western building.”

This way of giving directions was particularly useful for Chi Qian. When she arrived, she had felt there was a trick to the paths here, and now she suddenly understood. “I understand. I won’t get lost.”

“If Miss Chi has nothing else, I will take my leave first.”

“Take care.” Chi Qian stroked Emergency Rations, watching Mrs. Housekeeper leave.

The wind swept across the lawn, shaking the greenery in full view.

Chi Qian squatted on the grass looking into the distance. It felt just like being in the wild, only much safer.

This rabbit caught from the mountain streams now owned a massive lawn, eating whatever it wanted. It was no longer the pitiful little black rabbit that fell into a human trap for a ham sausage.

Thinking this, Chi Qian couldn’t help but envy him. “Where did you get such good fortune? A whole lawn, no worries about food or shelter. Shi Jinlan really likes you, huh.”

Saying this, Chi Qian picked up Emergency Rations and sat cross-legged on the ground like in the past, combing the fur on his neck. “But you have to thank me properly. If not for me, you would have ended up in Shi Jinlan’s stomach long ago. Where would you have found such a good life?”

Animals that lived a long time seemed to possess spirituality.

Hearing Chi Qian’s words, Emergency Rations twitched his nose and rubbed his cold nose against Chi Qian’s palm. His stiff whiskers scraped the back of her hand, tickling everywhere.

Chi Qian looked at the little rabbit’s practiced fawning and huffed a laugh, a bit disdainful of his flattery but also acknowledging it. “With you accompanying Shi Jinlan, she probably wasn’t that lonely these past three years, right?”

Living in such a huge manor… just one small Western building dazzled Chi Qian, let alone so many others.

But when Shi Jinlan filled this place with greenery, flowers, and precious collections, would she really not feel lonely?

Perhaps her own emotion just now had opened a box of memories, but Chi Qian inexplicably thought of the past.

That time, which had only been half a year for her, was three years for Shi Jinlan.

How did she get through those three years?

Whenever she came to see Emergency Rations, did she think of the days on the island like Chi Qian was doing now?

Back then, to complete the mission, she had falsely conveyed love to Shi Jinlan.

But Shi Jinlan had been far more immersed than her.

A heavy cloud slowly pressed over a corner of the sky, and the world suddenly became small.

The hand Chi Qian used to stroke Emergency Rations suddenly felt heavy. Her chest felt stuffy, as if something was expanding and struggling inside, yet couldn’t be correctly read by its owner.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

Chi Qian didn’t get a response from Emergency Rations; instead, the phone in her pocket rang.

She held Emergency Rations with one arm and fished her phone out with her free hand.

A familiar name jumped out on the black screen—”Wang Dog”⁴.

This was a small sub-team leader in Chi Qian’s project group, extremely good at taking a chicken feather as a warrant arrow⁵. He was a famous sycophantic dog leg⁶.

It seemed that to prevent chaos and save memory, the system Thirteen mentioned had simply combined her experiences in the original world with this one.

Could the system really do that?

Was her world actually just one of thousands of small worlds?

Chi Qian suddenly felt a sense of unreality about the world she was in.

She watched the wind brush past her cheek, a heatwave hitting her face.

Was the heat she perceived really heat?

Was the heaviness in her chest just the effect of the weather?

The phone was still vibrating against her palm. One second before the call cut off, Chi Qian finally snapped back to reality and picked up. “Hello.”

Before she could even finish saying hello, the dissatisfaction from the other end barged into her ears. “What are you doing? Taking so long to answer the phone.”

Hearing this familiar tone, Chi Qian actually felt a sense of nostalgia. She pulled the corner of her mouth and retorted, “Whatever I’m doing isn’t any of your business.”

The person didn’t expect Chi Qian to snap back immediately and shouted, “What is that attitude!”

“My attitude depends on what kind of goods you are,” Chi Qian said lightly, propping one hand on the grass and tilting her head toward the sky.

In the past, this guy had often been roasted by Chi Qian. He knew she was always like this, hard-tempered. Knowing he wouldn’t gain any advantage, he stopped arguing and notified her arrogantly, “I’m not here to jabber with you. I’m calling to notify you that the investigation team is coming the day after tomorrow. Get ready and come to the company.”

The development of events here seemed identical to Chi Qian’s original world. She originally thought the matter that had no conclusion in her world had now aligned with this world’s track. What was meant to come would come.

Last time, she had submitted a lot of evidence proving she didn’t have the time to steal data, but it was rejected one by one.

The matter seemed to have hit a dead end, and even the current her didn’t know how to handle it.

“I advise you to just admit it. Apologize properly, and maybe…” Seeing Chi Qian’s delayed response, the man’s expression grew smug, and he started lecturing her.

Chi Qian frowned, called him “Neurotic”⁷, and hung up.

The dust hadn’t even settled yet, and they couldn’t wait to pin the guilt on her head.

Chi Qian suddenly remembered the analysis Shi Jinlan had once shared with her. Was the biggest beneficiary from their faction?

The beta test data concerned the release of Party A’s new product, which their team had always been in charge of. Although this matter also affected Wang Dog’s promotion, he was close with another project manager, and he was competing with her project manager for the same title mid-year…

Kao bei⁸, no way.

Chi Qian felt like she had touched upon something she hadn’t been able to penetrate in her past life, her thoughts going deeper.

Just as she was about to figure it out, someone didn’t want an ant like her to understand these things.

Buzz, buzz, buzz.

Chi Qian’s phone rang again. “Wang Dog’s” name jumped on the screen.

Chi Qian got angry just looking at the name.

This was their team’s lifeblood, and this dog didn’t treat their hard work as anything important!

Indignantly, Chi Qian declined Wang Dog’s call.

The phone rang again.

Chi Qian declined again.

Emergency Rations seemed to sense Chi Qian’s mood. He lifted his head and nudged her hand.

The guy had jumped out of Chi Qian’s arms at some point and was nudging a ball, seemingly wanting Chi Qian to play with him, or maybe offering his favorite toy to tell her not to be angry.

Sometimes, humans weren’t as likable as animals.

Seeing how human-like Emergency Rations was, Chi Qian couldn’t help but scratch his chin. “Worthy of the little rabbit that won Shi Jinlan’s favor. You’re sharp.”

Saying that, Chi Qian ignored the constantly ringing phone, picked up the ball, and started playing with Emergency Rations.

The dense grass created green waves in the hot wind as a black shadow darted through it.

Emergency Rations was practically like a puppy; as soon as the ball was thrown, he would chase it, then nudge it back with his nose and body.

Sunlight filtered through the interwoven leaves. Surrounded by shade, the midsummer outdoors wasn’t too hot.

One person and one rabbit wove through the grass, playing back and forth. Chi Qian wiped a layer of light sweat from her forehead, feeling incredibly carefree.

Buzz buzz…

The phone vibrated against the grass, abruptly breaking the silence.

Just as she had managed to be happy for a while, Chi Qian’s phone rang again.

It was an unsaved number, and it was a video call.

Wang Dog, don’t go too far!

When a person’s mood reached its peak, it could transform into any other emotion instantly.

Chi Qian couldn’t tolerate it anymore. She reached out, snatched the phone from the ground, and yelled at the person the moment it connected, “I’m telling you, don’t force me to slap you in the happiest place on earth.”

“Ha.”

Instead of Chi Qian’s expected violence, a light chuckle came from the other side.

The video image framed a sunny, beautiful picture.

Shi Jinlan propped her chin lightly on her hand, looking at Chi Qian with a smile. “So, A-Qian thinks the happiest place on earth is my home?”

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The author has something to say:

Qianqian: Actually, I know an even happier place~

Lanlan: Draws the curtains.

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